Big time return means skies are blue again for Coventry’s Irish faithful
TRUE BLUE: Ray O’Mahony, who previously managed the Cork U20s footballers, first visited Coventry’s old Highfield Road stadium for a visit of Tottenham in the mid-90s. Pic: Evan Treacy/Inpho
It all started with Steve Ogrizovic.
Ray O’Mahony was a budding goalkeeper growing up in Stillorgan when Coventry City’s legendary stopper, and a man who would go on to play more games for the club than anyone before or since, caught his eye.
That was that. “I was fascinated with him,” he says. Next thing O’Mahony knew he was scanning Match of the Day every Saturday for a glimpse of his hero and ordering Sky Blues merchandise from football magazines.
Forty years later and he’s still hooked on a club that, after 25 years of spiralling fortunes that saw them sink to League 2, go homeless twice and flirt with administration, is back in the Premier League big time and away to champions Arsenal on Friday night.
What a return. And what a ride it’s been.
“It started off with a corporate nightmare after they got relegated [from the Premier League] in ’01. They didn’t have ownership of the stadium. It was a club that was broken, it was a club that was homeless, it was a club that was at war for two decades.
“But as a city the people just refused to go under. Just refused to go under. They had the hedge fund company, SISU, looking after them. I still remember in 2017 when they got relegated to League Two. That was the catalyst for the rise.
“Mark Robins took over. They got to an EFL League Trophy final that they won against Oxford. I was at that myself. They brought 40,000 to Wembley that day and to the outside and potential investors that was a realisation that this club has potential.”
Relegation to League 2 was already in the pipeline, but Robins’ working of the oracle leapfrogged them into the third tier and all the way to a Championship playoff in 2023 that was lost on penalties to Luton Town.
The decision by owner and chairman Doug King to sack Robins and replace him with Frank Lampard wasn’t popular. The Chelsea legend was damaged managerial goods then, but here he is now having taken them back to the Promised Land.
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If Liverpool, Manchester United and Celtic have always captured most hearts on this island when it comes to English football then everyone knew someone growing up who chose to hang from a more obscure branch of the tree.
A Blackburn Rovers hold-out, maybe. That lad endlessly devoted to Swindon Town. Or, in this case, one man’s ongoing attachment to an unfashionable West Midlands club that was formed as Singers FC back in 1883.
“Some people like cricket, some like hurling and football or tennis. Coventry was just my first go-to. I was a rare breed alright! But there was always that moment when Coventry won a game against Liverpool or United. When that happened you enjoyed it.”
Coventry actually boasts a strong Irish history.
If the current City squad can’t offer a green tint then the roll call of past servants from these parts is long and illustrious with Robbie Keane, Gary Breen, Steve Staunton, Kevin Kilbane and Richard Keogh only a taste of the total.
Irish people flocked there during the Great Famine, and again in the 1950s and ‘60s when work in the silk and car industries was the carrot. An estimated 6% of the population was Irish by 1961. It still has four GAA clubs.
Some members of the Coventry City Supporters Club Irish Branch can trace their allegiance to family ties in the city, or to time spent working there themselves, but geography or blood have never been the only qualifiers for devotion.
There are Coventry City fan clubs in over 30 countries, Uganda and Mexico included. Members live in Iceland and Crete. The Irish branch has been on the go since 1992 and numbers somewhere between 50 and 60.
There is an often arbitrary nature to fandom that defies any logic. One that flies in the face of those fun police who moan about people filling Croke Park and the Aviva Stadium to watch Premier League teams play pre-season friendlies.
O’Mahony could have been dazzled by Peter Shilton, or by Ray Clemence. Packie Bonner was the last line of defence at Parkhead for almost two decades through his own formative years. He could just as easily have hitched his wagon to Stoke, Spurs or to Celtic.
There is a delicious randomness in it all. A stubborn, solid loyalty.
And, if Coventry have struggled then this Dub, domiciled in Ballincollig and involved with Eire Og’s minor hurlers and footballers after two years over the Cork U20s footballers, has had plenty of return for any toil and troubles.
His first game was the visit of Tottenham Hotspur to the old Highfield Road in the mid-90s. And he was there last April when they lifted the Championship trophy after a 3-1 win over Wrexham. Plenty more memories were banked away from the pitch.
Seven or eight of them from the Irish branch were invited up to the boardroom with the chairman after a defeat of Newcastle United in 1997. That was the day Shay Given rolled the ball out and Dion Dublin nipped in from behind to score.
There was the time against Crawley Town in League Two when he got to meet manager Mark Robins – “ an absolute gentleman” - in his office before his own son Olan led the side out as mascot alongside captain and Dubliner Michael Doyle.
Or the ex-players’ function a decade ago when another club cult legend, Brian ‘Killer’ Kilcline, told him how he could have played for Ireland via a mother with Galway and Roscommon roots.
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This return to the top flight is a dream that comes with challenges beyond the job of a manager and a team hoping to emulate the Brentfords and Brightons of this elite world rather than the one-and-done Lutons and Watfords of recent years.
Capacity sits at 33,000, of which 25,000 are season-ticket holders. Another 3,000-plus go to away fans. Overseas members will be allotted tickets on a points system, like most other Premier League clubs, but fans find a way and O’Mahony will be no different.
He’s watched Coventry in the flesh maybe 60 times and plans to get over again in the coming months. As for Friday? He’ll watch the Arsenal game from the comfort of his couch, his attention devoted to a game a quarter century in the making.
“No distractions,” he says.
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